Title:

Static Electricity

Problem Scenario:

Learning and exploring about different atoms in static electricity.learn about how different material can affect static electricity or others things around
that object.

Broad Question:

Does the cotton cause the most static electricity from the balloon?

Specific Question:

Does material type affect static electricity?

Hypothesis:

The Balloon will cause the most static electricity?

Graph of Hypothesis:

Variables

Independent Variable:

Static electricity

Dependent Variable:

Material type,balloon,cotton,silk

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Temperature of room

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation:

Static Electricity:

Usually a 'high voltage' but low power form of electricity. You can experience it by getting a shock when touching a door , walking across a carpet) or putting a balloon above our head.Lightning is a form of static electricity, and it can damage buildings and harm people.

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General Plan:

The experiment will be conducted at school in the science room. The experiment will be done at one of the walls, with a normal room temperature.The balloons will be blown up right before the march 1st .If the balloons were started now they would shrink. When filled with helium, a latex balloon will usually last twelve hours before shrinking. Cotton, silk, timer and latex balloons will be used in the experiment.When the data is actually is recorded it will show how much the material type affects static electricity.

Potential Problems And Solutions:

one unfortunate problem is the balloons will break or shrink over time.Make sure to blow up balloons during the experiment.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns:

Always keep the balloons away from younger kids that think the balloon is edible for them.They could die from suffocation issues in the materials made up of the balloons.

Experimental Design

(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

What is your experimental unit?

two balloons , one cotton cloth, silk.

Number Of Trials:

two trials will be done during the experiment

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

one balloon one cotton cloth/shirt silk and one balloon.

Number of Observations:

using a timer it will be timed every minute.

When data will be collected

In science class when working on science fair.

Where will data be collected?:

The wall in the science room by the sinks.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Balloon	A pack	science room	free
cotton cloth	1	science room	free
silk	1	Mrs. Allen	free

Detailed Procedure:

Experiment 1 :
materials:2 latex balloons ,silk,a timer ,cotton cloth purple balloon for silk pink balloon for cloth

step one: get all the materials ready first inflate the balloons.

step two:rub a cotton cloth against the balloon.

step three: now rub it several times against your clothes then put it against a smooth wall.

step four: use the timer and time how long the balloon sticks to the wall.

step five: now rub the balloon on silk repeat steps 2-4.

Diagram:

Photo List:

Contact with the slide has left her hair positively charged so that the individual hairs repel one another.

Time Line:

February: March: May :
Monday 4th begin experiment Experiment completed Friday 1 regional science fair 9th
Thursday 7th analysis due
Discussion +Background due Friday 15
Friday 22 poster due
Friday 29 middle school science fair
may 9th regional science fair

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Data Table:

Silk	Cotton
10.01	10.45
11.13	11.42
12	12.34
13.25	13.23
14.65	14.12
15.75	15.45
16.45	16.54
17	17.68
18.68	18.54
19.54	19.32
23.21	20.22
24.22	22.24

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Data Analysis:

The graph shows that the material type affected the static electricity.The cotton was the best it took less time to fall off the wall plus all of the static charge from the clothes caused the balloon to last longer.The y axis is the material type and the protons is the x axis on the graph.The first graph represents the hypothesis.A hypothesis is what you think will actually happen but might actually be different later on from the actual data. The second graph shows what actually happened between the silk and cotton time holding against the smooth wall.The cotton took a shorter time against the wall.

All Raw Data:

see data table

Graphs:

Photos:

Results:

The balloon with the silk moved back and forth when it was against the wall unlike the cotton absorbed balloon which stayed in placed the whole time.It took longer time to rub the cotton cloth against the balloon.Maybe the balloon colors have affect on the material itself.The silk only happened to use one of the balloon.The purple balloon was for silk and the pink/red balloon was for the cotton.

Conclusion:

Over all the cotton was the best material that conducted with static discharge. It last the shortest time but the silk was pretty close to the cotton.Both balloons were given twenty-two minutes against the wall.The silk lasted for twenty four minutes then twenty minutes like the cotton did.The hypothesis was right the cotton lasted the shortest time and stayed the longest time against the wall without moving in anyway.The experiment would be a lot better if the balloons were the same color and same size.The red/pink balloon lost lots of air when being blown up.

Discussion:

The cotton cloth was proven the best material compared to the silk.If the experiment was given more time id get rid of the silk and replace it by doing more exercise using static electricity.If changing the independent variable the balloon would lose the extra charge that will help it stick to the wall.I saw that if you rub the balloon against your clothes it causes less force to stick to the wall unlike rubbing it to your hair. That caused the cotton cloth more force to the balloon.Instead of using latex balloons for both the cotton and another type of balloon will be had like a helium balloon.The helium balloon may have a different affect on the material unlike the latex balloon on the cotton or silk.For adding to the experiment i will research about how different balloon colors or sizes affect static electricity.

Benefit to Community and/or Science:

This experiment is to show how static electricity affects different material overtime.It is a great experiment for anytime whether your at home or at science class .The experiment would be great for elementary and middle school students.Static electricity is in the periodic table that proves it is a very important element on the earth.Lighting is just one source of static electricity on this earth.It involves the type of weather if you see dark clouds being put together that probably means a thunderstorm is coming.A great place for others students to learn more about static electricity is the Boston science museum.There are actually lots of science based related things there.

Background Research:

Static Electricity is an excess of electric charge trapped on and object or the surface.The electric charge remains until the it is allowed to escape a object with a weaker or opposite electric charge .Static electricity is in contact with current electricity such as wires or other conducts.A static electric charge is created whenever two surfaces come into contact and separate.The effects of static electricity are familiar to most people because people can feel, hear, and even see the spark as the excess charge is neutralized when brought close to a large electrical conductor.Lighting is dramatic example of static electricity.

References:

Wikipedia-Static Electricity
WWW .enchanted learning.com
WWW. science made simple .com
Boston museum of science

Abstract:

In the experiment the question I was trying to prove was if cotton was the best material for the balloon.The experiment could have changed over time from whether the balloon size or silk or cotton cloth was a different size.The experiment requires a timer, smooth wall, two balloons both a different color ,silk a cotton cloth, or cotton shirt.The balloons must be blown up during the experiment in order to do the experiment.Take one of the balloons and rub it against the cloth or your clothes.I found that the clothes created more static charge.The graphs are both to show what i think will happen to the experiment and what actually happened during and after the experiment.over all the cotton took the shortest time against the silk.protons and neutrons were needed to create static electricity.